Chris' R34 GTT Series 2

[hoodedreeper]

I've been having starting issues for quite some time. I put it down to the limited use the car receives, sometimes it could be used once a week sometimes it could be once in two weeks.

I would charge the battery and it would start fine. At one point I exchanged the battery under warranty and that was fine for awhile, until recently.

On the way home from the Pistonheads show at Bicester I stopped for fuel. Upon returning to the car it wouldn't start. I checked the battery terminals and they were tight on the battery posts but I noticed the cables going into both terminals weren't as tight as I'd like. After a little wiggle the car started, so that must be the issue?!

Once home I removed the cabling and cleaned up the copper core and refitted. It started fine so I left it. Fast forward a couple of days later when I wanted to use the car and it wouldn't start. I charged the battery up and it started, could it be a dodgy battery?!

Then next time it wouldn't start, this was becoming more and more of an nuisance. I disconnected the subwoofer positive and it started?! Hooray! But my luck came to an end rather quickly.

The battery terminals rely on a screw at the top of the terminal to hold the cables in place.

I wanted a more secure solution so I sourced some terminals with an 8mm post. The new crimp on ring terminals were quite beefy and my crimping tool would'nt be good enough to do the job. So I called upon a couple of friends who would have the equipment to help.

So I begun with disconnecting the battery, but when I moved the positive terminal to one side it moved more than it normally does. 

Next thing I know, I'm holding the positive cable but it's not attached to the car.

Turns out its been joined in the past, but what wire is it?

The alternator got disconnected and we checked continuity to the broken cable, nothing. The concerning thing was the broken cable was the same as the battery earth which is black with a yellow trace. But this was 100% connected to the battery positive.

You can see the broken cable where the yellow heat shrink is on the end (this was capped at the end of the night)

The broken cable goes into a loom covered in conduit which splits into a Y. One side goes to the Alternator and the other side goes towards the back of the car, where the Starter Motor is.

The insulation on the alternator live was peeled back to reveal a white cable, this was traced back to the fuse box.

So the broken cable must be the starter motor then. We had some spare red cable long enough to run a fresh live from the starter motor to the battery, bypassing the original loom for testing purposes. The car started first time with no hesitation.

The new live cable was cable tied out of the way to get me home.

Fast forward a week to my next day off and I decided to tackle the original wiring conduit to make things tidier.

I began by removing the OEM conduit and insulation tape.

The old starter motor live was then accessable and could be removed. Most would have left this in place mainly for ease, but lets not do things by halves.

Over time insulation tape seems to get stickier. I removed the old tape and gave the conduit a wipe over with some brake cleaner

I also removed the aftermarket earth kit and cleaned up the contact points with a wire brush drill attachment

I used some insulation tape to keep the loom together, refitted the conduit and the wrapped it all in tesa tape. Once the battery was reconnected I then cable tied the loom to keep it nice and tidy

I even covered the new Starter Motor cable in tesa tape so it wouldn't stand out too much

A couple of hours well spent and my starting issue resolved

Although google searching for an answer could have been quicker, there's some fun fault finding yourself and you learn along the way 
 

[GTSBoy]

Yeesh! Nasty voltage drop across whatever shitty half done connection in the middle of that cable! Good to be rid of it.

Dumbarse work by whoever used black for the starter cable too. Just asking for trouble. At least it was red where it mattered!

[hoodedreeper]

For the past couple of years the car has had inner tie rod(s)/track rod end(s) advised on the MOT. With the limited annual miles the car does, I've been putting it off

With the recent motivation for sorting out the odd jobs, this was on the list too. I ordered replacement parts from Conceptua Tuning, very fast delivery as always! The weather hasn't been great the past week or so, finding a break in the rain was difficult to judge but it finally happened. My friend Danny came over to help and brought along a tool to help with the job.

It looks like they haven't been touched in a long time

With the lock nut cracked off and wound down the inner tie rod next was the top nut on the track rod end. My impact gun made easy work and with a swift swing of a lump hammer, it released from the hub. I made sure to count the number of turns the track rod end had to help with re-aligning.

The steering rack boot had a small pinch clip on the outer end and a wire type clip on the inner. With those removed and the boot slid off, it was time to remove the inner tie rod.

This is where Danny's tool came in to help. On the end it has 3 round teeth on what looked like a bearing.This part goes over the knuckle and the tie rod shaft goes inside (giggidy!). As you turn the shaft the teeth grip onto the knuckle. I've probably explained this terribly sorry!

Anyway, it worked really well and they were off in seconds

I forgot to take a photo here. I ended up re-using the original locking washer, I just didn't like the look of the new ones. With the new inner tie rod knuckle screwed into the steering rack it's just a reversal of what was done before.

The larger metal clip for the steering rack boot snapped on removal so we had to resort to cable (zip) ties. Not ideal, but the shaft size on the new inner tie rods are smaller so the outer clip wouldnt work anyway.

The wheels looked straight so it was good enough for a short journey in the morning to have a proper wheel alignment.

I was lucky enough to get the car booked in with one of the STS Tyre Pros branches in Norwich at short notice. I used to take my supercharged MX5 here for any alignment, they always do a great job

I didn't realise how much rear camber it had, I'd prefer less camber but I'd need some camber arms to do so. Something to consider later on

[hoodedreeper]

One of the bigger jobs on the list was to underseal. I recently reached out on social media regarding brands and like most things, you ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers/recommendations.

My friend John who runs JD Motorsport Engineering responded and invited me over to put the car on the ramp so we can have a good look. I travelled over this morning after the wheel alignment to have a chat.

When I purchased the car in June 2018, the car went to H&S Performance for a large amount of work including undersealing. I understand garages can't spend hours upon hours prepping and treating so that they'll clean the surface and go over it with a Schutz gun. 

But looking at the underneath, I can't see any evidence of any underbody seal with the exception of the wheel arches. I did ask them to underseal those areas before fitting the Meister R coilovers, whether they mis-understood what I asked or just didn't do the underneath who knows. I've been using them for 15 years and I'm not start slagging them off. I was just shocked to see the current 'protection' so thin, you can litually pick it and it'll flake straight off.

Anyway, onto the current state of the underneath....

You can see the area we started to pick at, it really is that thin

John picked, tapped and scraped the areas that had surface corrosion. He said although there IS alot of surface rust, its a very solid and clean car (considering). Obviously until it's took back to bare metal I won't know if there's any potential repairs.

The plan was to hire a ramp and do this myself, but John has offered to help but it'd be a full strip down of all the componants (except engine/front subframe). The price will depend how far I want to go with it, but if everything is being removed, it may aswell be refreshed at the same time.

So that'll include:

subframe, suspension arms and hubs powder coated
polybushes
anti roll bar & bushes
camber arms
SR Autosource zinc subframe hardware kit

I can skip the subframe refresh and do that at a later date if I don't have the money in time. 

John also looked at the front struts. From a visual perspective they're good but we all know what lies underneath. 

He's suggested to tackle the underneath first before that gets too bad and then do the strut tops and front subframe refresh at the same time.

So another expensive bill, but I guess thats part of owning cars like these. We have to do such jobs to keep them in tip top condition and road worthy.

When it happens there will be plenty of photos

[soviet_merlin]

Oof, sounds like a big job. Looking forward to see how it goes though. I think it may be one of those things that'll hurt but will feel much better about the car afterwards. It also makes me want to not look too closely under my car.

I presume living in the UK is not helping here. You'd get a solid two days of driving out of the car if you only took it out on nice days

[GTSBoy]

It makes me sad seeing Skylines driving around in the filth and slush of the northern hemisphere and having their undersides turn that disgusting shade of red.

The underside of most Australian Skylines (the ones that haven't been abused, anyway) shows no surface rust, no rail rust, no rust on the suspension and steering arms, subframes, etc etc.

[Kinkstaah]

Yea that was my initial thought too - I've seen many things go wrong with my car, but I have never looked underneath it and seen... that.

[hoodedreeper]

Its been in the UK since 2016, I purchased it in 2018.

I've never driven it on salt roads, I can't say how the previous owner used the car.

Having the same layer of protection for the past 7 years will certainly wear out and start exposing the metal

[hoodedreeper]

21 hours ago, soviet_merlin said:

I presume living in the UK is not helping here. You'd get a solid two days of driving out of the car if you only took it out on nice days

We've had a pretty good summer this year surprisingly lol

Last year I only managed 700 miles/1120km use.

This year I've done almost 1700 miles/2735km

It doesnt sound alot but for pure weekend use thats quite abit for me (i wish it was more!)

[hoodedreeper]

It was that time of year where the car goes in for its MOT (annual inspection for those overseas). I did a mere 715 miles between Oct 2021-Oct 2022, this year I had covered 1736 miles. Certainly not the most exciting or interesting but it's great to be able to enjoy the car more.

I made sure I stopped on the way to capture this odometer milestone. I installed a new Nismo cluster in December 2018 which starts the odometer from zero, hence the low miles.

I even treated it to a full tank of fuel ready for the next couple of weekends of driving before it gets taken off the road for winter.

The tyres were advised again for another year. I'll get those changed next year as they'll now be approaching 5 years and are now showing early signs of cracking inbetween the treads. Its a minefield when it comes to tyre recommendations.

The only other thing that was picked up was a front tension rod. The bush on the passenger side is now cracking but not enough to cause any concern (yet)

Looking at replacements, my options are Driftworks, Japspeed, Hardrace and Nismo. I would LOVE a full set of Nismo arms but looking at the price for a pair of these, I can only imagine a full set would be eye watering.

Driftworks Front Tension Rods

Japspeed Front Tension Rods

Hardrace Tension Rods

Nismo Front Tension Rods

I'll probably go with the Driftworks ones, they also offer the other suspension arms too which will get replaced at some point.

A couple of random photos

[GTSBoy]

4 hours ago, hoodedreeper said:

I would LOVE a full set of Nismo arms but looking at the price for a pair of these, I can only imagine a full set would be eye watering.

Nismo arms are of no value. Expensive version of a stock arm.

My recommendation for caster rods is to only use those with spherical joints. Any sort of bush at the front end of the caster rod allows for waaaay more movement than is desirable. And in my experience there is absolutely no NVH penalty with sphericals in that location. And.... they seem to last forever. I never have to do anything to them. They're mostly out of the road/wheel spray and don't seem to get dirty, sticky, etc.

So, of that lot, you might as well buy local and get the Driftworks ones.

[MBS206]

On 9/22/2023 at 9:27 AM, GTSBoy said:

It makes me sad seeing Skylines driving around in the filth and slush of the northern hemisphere and having their undersides turn that disgusting shade of red.

The underside of most Australian Skylines (the ones that haven't been abused, anyway) shows no surface rust, no rail rust, no rust on the suspension and steering arms, subframes, etc etc.

My R33 has been 1.8m under water in the middle of a friend's farm, and then left to sit for two years without even a door opened.

It has sat in sheds, driveways, and even my old backyard just on grass.

It looks a million times better than the northern hemisphere cars!

 

I've never once in my life, for any of my car's thought about resealing the bottom of one, as that stuff never wears off in my experience. Even on the landcruiser, which has over 450,000km on it, and has been driven in some horrible dirt/gravel/mud!

 

It is good to see this R34 is being looked after and cleaned up!

[hoodedreeper]

I've only ever washed the R34 and used quick detailer, I've never polished/waxed it which is shameful to admit.

I got a friend over who's recently started his valeting company to come give the car some paint love. He didn't machine polish it so there's still some minor swirls, plus with the roof and bonnet having some paint defects he wanted to be careful (see a previous post about that)

Having not covered not many miles since ownership, the cambelt was due to be changed from age. Wayne at Auto Extreme supplied me with a genuine belt kit and waterpump.

I took the car to a local garage AP Tuning to have the work carried out. Gary has an incredible reputation when it comes to Evos in particular but is very knowledgable on all things japanese too.

The daily has been off the road for a couple of weeks so the R34 has been on daily duties. I forget just how nice it is to drive and was a great change. I just wasn't a fan of the fuel consumption (to be expected)

A couple of random photos one evening after work

A bonus pic of the daily Mazda 323F V6 on recently fitted R32 GTR wheels

Edited May 25 by hoodedreeper
can't spell

[PranK]

Looking great! 

I love the 323 on R32 wheels, thats too cool.

[soviet_merlin]

1 hour ago, PranK said:

I love the 323 on R32 wheels, thats too cool.

Me too! They are such a good looking car. Timeless design.